Oil Tanker Disaster Destroys Livelihoods in Spain

(December 9, 2002) -- On November 19, 2002, the oil tanker Prestige broke in two and sank off the Spanish coast. The vessel was carrying 77,000 tons of fuel oil. Fuel oil, a heavy, viscous blend gathered from the bottom of tanks at the end of the refining process, can be far more toxic and difficult to clean up
than crude oil. Ecologists fear that the 26-year-old Prestige is an environmental time bomb as it is now resting 130 miles (210 km) off the Spanish coast and 3.6 km (two miles) below the surface.

The scenic shores of Galicia, in northwest Spain, have been blackened by the oil from the vessel. Galicia, where local people depend on fishing and summer tourism for their livelihood, has an uncertain future, as its
diverse reserve of fish and shellfish is under severe threat. It is the fisherpeople of Galicia who have been the main victims of the disaster.

Those fisherpeople put out more boats than the rest of the EU fleet put together in an enterprise worth more than US$300-million a year, divided among family-owned boats, whose efforts sustain entire communities along the coast. "This is going to take 10 years to recover. They try and clean it up but the sea brings in more," said retired fisherman Jose Camano, 72, staring at the tar-covered beach at Caion. "This means
complete ruin for us. Who will buy our fish now?"

The consequences for northwestern Spain are worsening daily, as Spanish authorities extended restrictions on fishing and gathering shellfish. The ban now reaches as far south as the Portuguese border. Dozens of
Spanish beaches along the coastline have been contaminated by the thick oil, and thousands of seabirds have been killed or contaminated.

By December 4, two weeks after the Prestige sank, Portugal and France were on high alert after oil slicks from the tanker began encroaching on their territory. French officials said that oil-stained birds had begun
washing up on the southwestern French coast. Portuguese Defense Minister Paulo Portas said that small slicks had been spotted about 18 miles (30 km) away from his country's coastline, and more reconnaissance planes and patrol boats had been sent to the area.

Spain has deployed more than 500 workers to scrape oil off nearly 400 km (250 miles) of coastline, where fishing has been banned. While the clean-up operation goes on, the next round of blame will come when
parties seek compensation, a process that will be hampered by the complex web of ownership which characterizes modern shipping, environmentalists said.

"It's a Liberian tanker, registered in the Bahamas, managed in Greece, and chartered by a company in Switzerland. The immediate response by everyone is to throw up their hands and deny responsibility," Greenpeace scientist David Santillo said.

This environmental disaster has fueled controversy about how a rapacious industry that feeds the insatiable demand for cheap oil across the world operates largely hidden from scrutiny and regulation, trading through a
bewildering chain of companies that defy attempts by governments and environmentalists to guard against such disasters. "The shipping and oil industry spares no opportunity to hide behind a legal structure so
complex that liability for their actions is almost impossible to enforce," says Ian Wilmore of Friends of the Earth.

Crown Resources, the company that chartered the Prestige, is part of the empire of Mikhail Fridman, a Russian businessman estimated to be worth US$2 billion. Rated as one of the world's richest men by Forbes, Fridman runs one of Russia's largest conglomerates, which takes in oil exploration, banking, telecommunications, food, vodka and supermarkets. Crown Resources, while largely run from its central London offices, is
officially headquartered in Switzerland.

The ownership of the Prestige itself is equally complex. It is a Liberian-owned vessel, with a Greek captain, crewed by Filipinos and registered in the Bahamas. Indeed, the Bahamas' Maritime Authority makes
no bones about its attraction: tax avoidance. It states: 'The operations and income associated with Bahamas Flag vessels are entirely tax-free.' It is this 'flag of convenience' system that is blamed by
environmentalists as one of the main factors that allows cheap-to-rent, sub-standard vessels, run by untrained crews, to travel the world's oceans with impunity.

The Prestige was carrying twice as much fuel as spilled from the Exxon Valdez, which ran aground in Alaska in 1989, creating what was then thought to be the world's worst oil spill. Follow-up studies of the
Exxon Valdez incident - which coated Prince William Sound in Alaska with 11 million gallons of crude oil after striking Bligh Reef in 1989 - have shown that oil spills cause a hundred times more damage than had
previously been expected. Pollution of less than one part per billion is enough to have serious effects on marine life, it now appears.

Experts say the slicks suggest that bubbles of oil are still leaking from the Prestige, raising fears that the tanker's hull is in danger of bursting under the pressure of almost 4,000 meters of water. Even if the
cargo stays on the seabed, compressed and turned into a heavy, waxy substance by the cold and extreme pressures, as some experts predict, others warn that heavy metals will still leach into the water and enter
the food chain.

Oil spill compensation is covered by international law, regulated by the London-based International Maritime Organisation, but activists want the European Union to do more. Officials are pushing for immediate
implementation of more stringent shipping laws. E.U. Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio sent a letter to the 15 E.U. capitals, urging that new measures be written into national law and implemented as
quickly as possible.

Under the new rules, port authorities are required to check at least 25 percent of all ships coming into dock, starting with older, single-hull vessels. Ships flying 'flags of convenience' - or registered in countries with lax safety, labor, or tax rules - are to be given priority. That process could have caught the Prestige, as a 26-year-old, single-hulled tanker registered in the Bahamas.

Sources: "Alert as oil slicks threaten coastlines." BBC World News, December 4, 2002; "Oil spill pollution will kill for decades, say experts," by Robin McKie, The Observer (London), November 24, 2002; "How
oil slick will bring black death to coast's way of life," by Emma Daly, Mark Townsend, and Antony Barnett, The Guardian (London), November 24, 2002; "Fishermen fight to keep tide of oil at bay." by Isambard
Wilkinson in Bayona, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and Charles Clover, Daily Telegraph (London), November 21, 2002; "EU under fire as Prestige tanker blame game begins." by Robin Pomeroy, Reuters, November 21, 2002; "No
end to European oil pollution threat until 2015," by Stefano Ambrogi, Reuters, November 21, 2002; "Spain frets over disaster from sunk tanker," by Adrian Croft, Reuters, November 21, 2002; Story "Oil spill
off Spanish coast could have been prevented with tougher inspections, E.U. says." By Paul Geitner, Associated Press, November 20, 2002; "Oil tanker carrying 20 million gallons sinks off Spain." By Mar Romain,
Associated Press, November 19, 2002.

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